Software on Android phones 'tracking every key stroke'Software installed on millions of Android phones is thought to be secretly tracking every key stroke, Google search, and text message by their users, it has been claimed.

An Android app developer in America has posted a video showing what he claims is 'conclusive proof' that 'Carrier IQ' software installed by manufacturers of many US phones record the way those phone are used in real time, as well as their geographic locations.

Carrier IQ has claimed that the software only tracks information for the benefit of users, not for any spying purposes, and that it is “counting and summarising” information rather than recording it.

However, in a YouTube video posted on Monday, the developer, Trevor Eckhart, did a “factory reset” on his Android phone, returning it to the condition in which it is shipped to customers, and linked it to a computer screen which allegedly displayed what the Carrier IQ software was tracking.

The demonstration showed that the software read every keystroke put into the phone, as well as every text message sent to it. It also appeared to log location data, and transmit this to Carrier IQ.

Mr Eckhart, claims it is used by manufacturers of phones that use Google's Android operating system, as well as some BlackBerry and Nokia handsets. It is not thought to be used in Apple’s iPhones.Related Articles

It is not known if Carrier IQ is in use in Europe, where it might present a serious breach of the Data Protection laws.

A source at a leading mobile operator said his company didn't install it but that he had been investigating whether UK manufacturers had done so and “couldn’t give a definitive answer”.

Carrier IQ said in a statement that it “assists operators and device manufacturers in delivering high quality products and services to their customers … by counting and measuring operational information in mobile devices – feature phones, smartphones and tablets.

“The information gathered by Carrier IQ is done so for the exclusive use of that customer, and Carrier IQ does not sell personal subscriber information to third parties,” it added.

Carrier IQ would not return requests for further comment, but according to US reports it has issued Mr Eckhart with an order to take down its video. There is no suggestion that Google has authorised the use of the Carrier IQ technology.

Surveillance companies can use your iPhone to take photos of you and your surroundings without your knowledge, said a representative from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism at a panel chaired by Julian Assange™ today.

Companies also sell products that will let them change the messages you write, track your location and nick your email contacts, claimed speakers on the panel that included representatives from Privacy International and the aforementioned bureau.

The privacy campaigners, speaking in London, pulled out some of the most sensational revelations in the 287 documents about the international surveillance industry published today by WikiLeaks (but you read it here first). The documents cover a total of 160 companies in 25 countries.

"Who here has an iPhone, who has a BlackBerry, who uses Gmail?" Assange asked. "Well you're all screwed," he continued, "the reality is that intelligence operations are selling right now mass surveillance systems for all those products".

Speaking on the panel, Pratap Chatterjee of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (which works out of City University, but is an independent organisation) said that your phone could be used to record and send information about you even when it is in stand-by mode. That data included location, recordings of your conversations and even photographs. This spy software could run on iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows mobile kit.

Stefania Maurizi, a journalist from Italy's weekly news magazine L'Espresso, showed documents that suggested that software products could not only read emails and text messages sent from spied-on phones, but could actually fake new ones or alter the text of messages sent.

As The Reg has already discussed, all these software products are commercially available, and sold seemingly without any regulation.

Maurizi and N Ram, editor-in-chief of India's The Hindu newspaper (speaking over a Skype connection) said that they were particularly worried by the lack of a legal framework and the absence of checks and balances in the surveillance system.

Steven Murdoch of Cambridge Security group said such software was being made by British companies including ones based in Surrey and Oxford.

He added that even lawful interception was no longer targeted and backed up by suspicions. "We're seeing increasingly wholesale monitoring of entire populations with no suspicion of wrongdoing – the data is being monitored and stored in the hope that it might one day be useful."

"Without controls on this industry, the threat that surveillance poses to freedom on expression and human rights in general is only going to increase." ®